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Social touch is a common method of communication between individuals, but touch cues alone provide only a glimpse of the entire interaction. Visual and auditory cues are also present in these interactions, and increase the expressiveness and recognition of the conveyed information. However, most mediated touch interactions have focused on providing only haptic cues to the user. Our research addresses this gap by adding visual cues to a mediated social touch interaction through an array of LEDs attached to a wearable device. This device consists of an array of voice-coil actuators that present normal force to the user’s forearm to recreate the sensation of social touch gestures. We conducted a human subject study (N = 20) to determine the relative importance of the touch and visual cues. Our results demonstrate that visual cues, particularly color and pattern, significantly enhance perceived realism, as well as alter perceived touch intensity, valence, and dominance of the mediated social touch. These results illustrate the importance of closely integrating multisensory cues to create more expressive and realistic virtual interactions. 

Touch as a modality in social communication has been getting more attention with recent developments in wearable technology and an increase in awareness of how limited physical contact can lead to touch starvation and feelings of depression. Although several mediated touch methods have been developed for conveying emotional support, the transfer of emotion through mediated touch has not been widely studied. This work addresses this need by exploring emotional communication through a novel wearable haptic system. The system records physical touch patterns through an array of force sensors, processes the recordings using novel gesture-based algorithms to create actuator control signals, and generates mediated social touch through an array of voice coil actuators. We conducted a human subject study ( N = 20) to understand the perception and emotional components of this mediated social touch for common social touch gestures, including poking, patting, massaging, squeezing, and stroking. Our results show that the speed of the virtual gesture significantly alters the participants' ratings of valence, arousal, realism, and comfort of these gestures with increased speed producing negative emotions and decreased realism. The findings from the study will allow us to better recognize generic patterns from human mediated touch perception and determine how mediated social touch can be used to convey emotion. Our system design, signal processing methods, and results can provide guidance in future mediated social touch design. 

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, social distancing has been a necessary and effective means of reducing disease through decreased close human contact. However, there has been a corresponding increase in touch starvation due to limited physical contact. Our research seeks to create a solution for allowing individuals to safely communicate through touch over a distance. Our system consists of wearable sensors to measure the social touch gesture, which is then processed and sent to an array of voice coils in an actuator device.